


Where There's Music and There's Laughter

by DresdenHaskell



Series: Pakanistrasz [5]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-15 07:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19608037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DresdenHaskell/pseuds/DresdenHaskell
Summary: A red dragon in human guise has a chance encounter with an old flame, while his dwarf buddy wingmans gleefully.





	Where There's Music and There's Laughter

Pakani shook the snow off his woolen cloak as he and Bragden entered the tavern. He inhaled deeply and said, "Mm, steak," at the same moment the dwarf said, "Mm, ale!" They chuckled as they found a table in the warm, packed room. Bards strummed airy melodies off to one side. Bragden grumbled about the human-sized chairs. Pakani was just glad to be out of the cold.  
  
Someone strode over to their table, and a woman said, "Hey there, what can I - Whoa."  
  
It took two seconds for Pakani to understand: in the first second, he realized he recognized that voice (just as rich and dulcet, but a little husky from the years and, if memory served, a pipe). In the next, he realized she recognized him right back.  
  
She went on, "You are just, wow, the spitting image of my - friend. An old friend." She laughed. "It's actually downright uncanny."  
  
Bragden, his voice grinning, said slyly, "An old friend, eh?"  
  
Pakani's face burned. "Hi, Issa."  
  
Issa Imburi gasped. "Wh- No. No way."  
  
"Yeah, it's been a while, huh." He ran a hand through his hair.  
  
"This is going to need some explaining, because it sure looks like a long story." She pulled out a chair, plopped herself down, and clapped the surface of the table with her hands. "So start telling it."  
  
\---  
  
Empty mugs and cleaned plates (on the house, with Issa off the clock) spread out on the table between the three.  
  
"And since I was blind, well, Bragden was the only one who bothered," Pakani said. "Obviously he needed someone who won't judge a book by its cover." Smirk.  
  
"Ye cannae judge a book by its contents, either," Bragden said, then stage-whispered, "Every time he catches me readin' tha steamy fiction, I lie an' say it's a treatise on fightin' tactics."  
  
Pakani grinned. "Aren't those the same thing for dwarves?"  
  
"So that's what I've been doin' wrong!" Bragden said. "Or I take a page out o' yer book, Pecan, and huddle down in a foxhole with a lass an' drop a line about nae knowin' we'll live to see tomorrow."  
  
Pakani flushed. "Hey, that's not what -"  
  
"'Pecan'? Oh, that's cute," Issa said with a smirk.  
  
"Okay, enough about me and what I've been up to -"  
  
"Or who!" Bragden interjected.  
  
Pakani made a flustered noise and covered his face. "Issa, save me."  
  
She laughed (he'd missed that sound), but then her tone turned sober. "Well, after the evacuations, and all the confusion where I lost track of you - Well, I thought you were dead." She sighed. "And I moved on. I moved back home, I met a man, I married him. Soldier in the Alliance army. I guess I'm drawn to men who are drawn to danger. He ran off to Outland and died there."  
  
"Oh, I - I'm sorry to hear that."  
  
"I heard the news when - well, you know." Another sigh. "But that's all in the past now. I'd been a widow longer than I realized. After that, I wanted a fresh start, so I came to Northrend as a homesteader and provisioner."  
  
"It sounds like you're doing alright with that, at least," Pakani said. "And I hope the Scourge doesn't reach you here. Or the Forsaken. They've been active nearby."  
  
"Don't I know it? I hear about it every day from the soldiers who come in here. Not much scares me much anymore, after everything I've seen." Her pleasantly warm hand reached across the table to rest over his. "Are you two in a big hurry to get back to all your adventuring business?" she asked in a her low, smoky voice, heavy with invitation.  
  
Bragden piped up instantly. "Nae at all, lass! Pecan here's got all tha time in tha world. In fact, I think I see a game o' cards with me name on it at another table." The dwarf hopped to his feet with a thump, and strode off in haste.  
  
"Um, well, that answers that?" Pakani said with an embarrassed laugh.  
  
" _He_ did," Issa said, leaning nearer. "I'd like to hear it from _you_."  
  
A grin spread across Pakani's face. "Yeah." He brushed her hand with his thumb. "Yeah, all the time in the world."  
  
Her hand moved up his arm and squeezed, then tugged him up to stand with her. He looped his arm with hers as his other hand took up his cane. He felt her shift as she looked to it, heard a soft, "Oh," under her breath, as she finally took in the reality of his blindness. Her hold tightened on his arm again, almost protectively, and she led him off.  
  
"Doesn't even seem real," she muttered as they strode through the biting cold of the Howling Fjord. Frosty grass crunched underfoot. Wolves howled somewhere faroff.  
  
"Which part?" Pakani asked.  
  
"All of it. Seeing you again. It's like seeing a ghost." They reached wooden steps up. "And everything else I know now."  
  
A well-oiled wooden door swung open with nary a noise, then clicked shut again behind them. Issa turned to face him, hands grazing his shoulders and neck to run gently through his hair, as if she might scare him off if she moved too quickly. He hummed appreciatively at her affection; it was a rare thing, in his life, a luxury he forgot too easily in his quest to save the world.  
  
"You haven't changed a bit," she said softly. "No, that's not true. Your eyes..." She stood very close now.  
  
He set his cane carelessly somewhere to the side so his hands could move across her sooner. She wasn’t as thin or as soft, and she was dimpled and calloused here and there, but he didn't mind a bit.  
  
She kissed him, then chuckled. "Won't people talk now? Look at you, looking like that. And me - I'm glad you can't see the gray hairs I have now. Just a few, mind you."  
  
He wove his fingers through her mass of curls. "Looks just the same to me."  
  
"A gentleman and a liar. Just the way I like it." They kissed again, a little longer and harder this time.  
  
"What else would you like?" he murmured against her neck.  
  
"I think," she breathed, "you probably remember."  
  
She was right. Some things you don't forget so easily.


End file.
